How Much Would You spend On Your Pet?

[Guest LadyC]

your vet was probably way over-charging. i wouldn't have been able to even consider 300/month. i had a vet once that told me my himalayan's sneezing problems were due to poor dental hygien. he wanted me to pay about that amount to clean his teeth and gums. i thought the guy was insane, considering my wonderful cat only had two and a half teeth at the time. turns out jordy just had seasonal allergies. we'd just moved from texas to vegas, and the pollens here made him sneeze.

my husband's cat, years ago, was having a lot of symptoms of something. didn't know what. i took her to banfields, they charged me just over 300 for all the tests, and told me the cat had a UTI and gave me a script for pills. after the first failed attempt at giving her a pill, i couldn't even go near her for a month. so much for that. but several months later i took her to the vet that now treats ALL my cats. she ran the exact same tests, told me every problem the cat had (advanced renal failure, thyroid tumor, UTI, and something else that was minor.) then she not only gave me a script, she personally spent a half hour with me teaching me how to give them to the cat, having me practice over and over with an empty pill shooter. by the time i left, i was an expert, and the cat was not the least bit scared of getting medicated. total cost for all that? $161.

seriously, if you think your vet's estimate is high, refuse treatment and seek a second opinion. call around even. and ask friends and neighbors who they use. and if you have a cat, find a vet that specializes in cats. i'm sure there are strictly dog vets too. my vet only treats cats, and is consistently less than half the price of other vets on the same services.

[ayin jade]

Sad thread for me

[Guest]

Sad thread for me

Maybe best to avoid such threads then

Personally, though I love animals, I do not need them in my life, I prefer to value human relationships. While an animal can certainly be a companion, there are limits to my willingness to spend much on one's maintenace. Food etc, is an ongoing cost that I assume I must make, if I want to have an animal. Recently a cat adopted us. I am more of a dog person than a cat person, in fact, this is our first cat that I am willing to say is part 'mine', all of our other cats were my wife's cats.

I do not allow the cat in the house. The house is a human habitation, that I prefer to keep nice for humans, that means no cat hair, no litter boxes, no clawed furniture etc, hence, the cat lives outside.

We live in a climate where the temps can go below zero degrees F. The coming winter will be our cat''s first full winter with us. I do not know how low a cat can take. I know that there are tigers and leopards that live in frozen places, so I assume fairly low. However, I am not going to research the survival needs of a tabby cat. Neither am I going to leave it to the elements. I figure that comfort is important. I will be making a thermostatically controlled little house for the cat, because I have compassion for it. If such a thing were on the market (maybe it is), I would not pay $100 for it, but since I am handy and have the materials I need, I am willing to devote some effort to the cat's cause.

However, if the cat were to come down with some illness, I will not spend much on it's welfare. I see the cat as a possession, just like a car. If a car is worth $35,000 dollars, and it needs a fender repaired, and that will cost $500, I would spend the $500. If the car is some old clunker, and it's value has dropped to $400, I will not spend $500, to keep the car worth $400, it makes no sense to me. The insurance industry calls this "totaled".

I view animals the same way. The 'value' of a tabby cat, well, they are a dime a dozen. Not going to spent $100 in a one shot expense to keep that cat alive. I have to draw the line somewhere. Now, if I had millions in the bank, and had kids that would be devastated at the cat's death, that is different, because I value my kid's feelings more than I value the life of the cat. I can replace that cat with another one, which i can grow attached to, it can be replaced. Is it exactly the same? No, but it is a substitute than can fill the same 'need'.

For myself personally, I consider the stewardship of pet ownership, to be questionable at best. Can I really justify spending $15 a month on cat food, when I can spend the same amount to keep a human fed in a third world country? That is a tough question for me. I know I am being selfish, to keep a cat alive for my own limited pleasure, when I could keep a person alive instead. These kind of questions, we sweep into the dark corners of our minds, so we do not have to confront them often. With that in mind, I just really cannot justify spending hundreds of dollars to prolong the limited life of my cat, that will die in a few years anyway, no matter what i do.

That is the cold way I see it.

[rogerjerry]

I have had the joy of having had a German Shepherd and a Labrador Retriever. To me, both were members of the family. I never really kept track of how much we spent on them. They sure brought a lot of joy into my life while they were with us. I miss them both, very much.

[The_Patriot21]

To me, I love my pets, but it would depend a lot on what I had to spend. If I had a vet bill that was $1500, and I had it to spend, well I probably would. But if I didnt have it to spend, then I wouldn't. Don't get me wrong, I love my pets, but if it game down to a choice between my family (either their healthcare or wellbeing, like say a place to live) and a vet bill, then the choice is simple-the animal will either find a way to live without the vet bill, or be put down, and probably the most inexpensive way possible. So if my pets plan to get sick, theyd best do so around tax return season.

[Denise37]

Idk how much I'd spend.. Ma dogs are like humans, actually, a lot smarter than some people I know.. He,he,he

[Mila Friiele]

I adore my animals. All four of them...two dogs and two cats. But many vets charge way too much and in a small town like mine with only one vet clinic, they can charge whatever they want and you're stuck with it. Unless one drives, then another small nearby town or Quebec charges much, much less.

I never did go through with getting Sadie spayed. The vet here wanted to charge $400 to have my 8lb female spayed. The next town over was $217. My friend was going to take me, but the day before her surgery, Sadie went into heat. I just never bothered after that. A second vet clinic opened in town last year, and it cost me $278 to have my five month old male neutered. Plus rabies shots before that and another set when he turns a year.

Because it is law, I have to have their rabies shots done every three years. The cats are suppose to be done as well, but because they never go outside, I refuse to pay. They are both 11 years old, probably having their shots twice in all that time.

Should any of my animals get sick, I will try what I can do first, before I take them to the vet. There are alternative ways of dealing with some problems. Though Sadie just came back from the vet last week for a nasty rash that won't go away. That cost me $111. Plus the $12 for benadryl I got at the drug store.

Teagray got really sick one year. The vet told me he would not live through the night. His organs had - out of the blue - started to shut down. They wanted to do x-rays, tallying up to $700. I refused and told her to give me a good guestimate as to what was wrong. And so she told me. Four hundred dollars later, I brought my cat home to die. Some may not believe that God hears our hearts for our pets, but I am one that does. I truly believe my God saved my cat. With a vet's death sentence and my God's heart for my prayers, Teagray was up to his old self in 3 days.

I will spend if I have to spend...within reason.

Edited June 16, 2012 by Mila Friiele

[Ladyhrtlovesu]

If God knows and cares for even the smallest of sparrows...and knows when it falls....that tells me, God's creatures are important to him. If they are important to God, then, they are important to me. My choice is not how much would i spend on the pet/animal, it is what would be the most humane way of helping that creature, then, depend on God to provide the means to help me care for one of his creatures.

Through the years, if all was totalled, i'm sure had i saved the money and not spent it...i could now afford to buy a house, or put a kid though college. Life, all life is precious and priceless.

[Guest Norrin Radd]

Probably not the most Christiany thing to say, but it's true: I like most animals way more than I like most people.

On the $$ topic...

Late autumn of 2010, a few weeks after my dad died, I adopted a stray cat that had been roaming the neighborhood for a few weeks. It had obviously been someone's pet, because it was neutered, but after making reasonable attempts, I didn't find its owner, so I claimed it.

A few weeks later, I was celebrating Christmas with some of my cousins. One young couple there was talking about the dog they were planning to get. Some fancy-schmancy critter from a breeder. They were getting a little bit tense in discussing how much it was likely to cost. I finally interjected, "I just got a cat. You know what it cost? It cost, 'Here, I'll open the door. Come on in.'" Strays are great. I love him to pieces. First time I petted him, he drooled on my while he purred, so I named him, "Banjo" (y'know, Dueling Banjos, drooling Banjo).

Now, I *have* spent money on him since getting him. He's bigger than average -- about 14 pounds -- so he eats about 2 cans of "wet" food + about 1/3 cup of crunchies every day. That's probably about $1.25 per day for food. He loves the outdoors, and contrary to the best current cat advice, I allow him to go outside. Unless the weather is really horrendous -- bitter cold and deep snow -- he does all his pottying outdoors. He has not touched his litter box since just after Christmas. So, I don't spend a lot on litter. I've bought him a few cheap toys, but his favorites are scraps, or things mostly made from scraps: a soft leather cord with a knot at one end; a tougher leather cord with a knot at one end and a cloth, bell-filled Christmas tree ornament at the other end; wiffle-type practice golf balls; and a composite toy featuring a feathered loofa mouse crammed onto the handle of an old flyswatter, with a long rubber band tied to a little furry green toy mouse. I've taken him to the vet three times for routine check-ups and shots. Since he's outdoorsy, he gets some "extra" shots, plus little tubes of monthly flea preventive (which he hates). My vet is sane, so those three visits cost me less than my cousin or my best friend typically pay for a single visit. (OTOH, it's way more than the zero I've paid for medical visits for myself in the past several years.)

I'm not sure what dollar limit I would set on taking care of him. I'd be much more concerned with his happiness and QOL. I'd hate it, but I would much rather put him down peacefully than torment him with "special" foods and daily shots and IV fluids. I'd also try to find some relatively non-messy way to put MYSELF down, rather than drag along in misery, but that's another issue.

[Guest Norrin Radd]

I do not own any pets. I can;t see the sense in spending money feeding some creature and then having to clean its poop. I don't want dog hair or cat hair around my house. No matter the argument you will never convince me your animal isn't leaving excrement in your house. Ewww!

The only animals that leave excrement here are the uninvited ones. Mice find their way in, and when they do, they leave calling cards. The house is too cluttered for the cat to effectively hunt them in here, tho' he does catch varmints outside the house pretty well. (He also has a questionable tendency to try to make friends with some of them, including a local possum and raccoon.)